Update on the Drug – RANOLAZINE

Personal Trainers – be AWARE!

Ranolazine is a second-line therapeutic agent prescribed for angina pectoris, for which chest pain is the main symptom. It works to improve blood flow to help the heart work more effectively and also has been effective in treating those with some inherited arrhythmias.

Peter Ruben and his team of researchers have spent years studying why seemingly healthy patients with inherited cardiac arrhythmias can sometimes suddenly die during exercise.

Now the team has dug deeper and discovered that some of these physiological changes accompanying exercise, particularly elevated body temperature and elevated heart rate, might also decrease the ability of Ranolazine to maintain a healthy heart rhythm during exercise. “This is important because exercise can trigger a catastrophic arrhythmia in these patients, and Ranolazine could not be expected to control the arrhythmia in those patients during exercise” says Ruben.